Abstract
Aortic valve disease is frequently associated with coronary artery disease and arrythmia. Recently, the mortality of aortic valve replacement has decreased because of more effective myocardial protection, so operations that combine aortic valve replacement and coronary bypass grafting or the Maze procedure for atrial fibrillation have been performed. We treated 25 patients undergoing aortic valve replacement combined with coronary bypass grafting and 2 patients undergoing aortic valve replacement with a modified Maze procedure from 1990 to 1996. Among the patients undergoing aortic valve replacement combined with coronary bypass grafting, there were no perioperative deaths and no development of coronary artery disease, malfunction of mechanical valve, or thrombosis. Two patients undergoing aortic valve replacement with a modified Maze procedure and tricuspid valve annuloplasty have reverted to sinus rhythm from atrial fibrillation with no anti-arrythmic agent. Surgery for combined aortic valve disease and coronary artery disease or arrythmia resulted in an improvement of late survival and quality of life.
